While Franklin Delano Roosevelt's official circle was predominantly male, it was his relationships with women—particularly with Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd—that most vividly bring to light the human being within the towering statesman, argues the author of Roosevelt's Secret War here. Joseph E. Persico explores FDR's romance with Rutherfurd, which was far deeper and lasted much longer than was previously acknowledged. FDR's connection with Lucy also creates an opportunity for Persico to take a more penetrating look at the other women in FDR's life.

"Persico engagingly and eloquently narrates the tangled relationships between Franklin and the various women to whom he became close, including his mother; his wife; Lucy Mercer (the young Eleanor Roosevelt's social secretary during WWI and later Mrs. Winthrop Rutherfurd); his longtime secretary, Missy LeHand; and his distant cousin Margaret (Daisy) Suckley. These relationships have been examined before; the major revelation of the volume—backed up by documents recently discovered by Mercer's descendants—is that her relationship with FDR continued throughout his life, even after it was supposedly ended by Franklin at the demand of his mother, who threatened to cut off both his income and his inheritance were he to leave his wife and family. (Previously, it was believed that FDR's relationship with Mercer only rekindled once Franklin's mother died, at the very end of his own life.) Another intriguing aspect of the book is Persico's informed speculation on how Franklin's frequently nonchalant womanizing affected Eleanor, who appears, quite possibly, to have pursued several relationships of her own, both hetero- and homosexual. In sum, Persico offers what will prove an important, lasting addition to the literature of the Roosevelts."—Publishers Weekly